As we leave I-75 at Ocala and approach the small Florida town of Williston, giant uprooted live oaks begin to litter the landscape on both sides of U.S. Highway 27, sad reminders of what the soggy Sunshine State has been through recently. The eye of Hurricane Irma passed just west of here about three weeks ago on Sept. 10, and we’re wondering what we’ll find at one of Scuba Diving Magazine’s favorite local dives, Florida’s “prehistoric spring,” Devil’s Den.

“We were worried about the big tree over the spring,” the woman who checked us in says, and we were too, knowing that many public and private parks in Florida still are closed for cleanup, including favorite dive spots like Alexander and Ginnie springs. (The situation is rapidly evolving — and improving — so it’s good to call ahead anywhere you plan to dive in Florida right now.)

But the beautiful sprawling live oak that seems to embrace the cavern did just fine, and the rest of the lovely rolling, rural property that surrounds Devil’s Den looks just as it always does, thanks to the spring’s maintenance crew.

Devil’s Den is a 120-foot-wide cavern fed by a constant 72-degree spring; underwater the “room” has the shape of an inverted mushroom, with the “stem” topped by a wide, stair-stepped platform leading to a narrow wooden staircase to the surface. A small opening at the ceiling lets in lots of natural light, especially midday, creating conditions that allow dancing rays to penetrate to the bottom of the cavern. Maximum depth is around 54 feet, officially, but changing water levels and the extremely varied distribution of rocks on the bottom means profiles can very a lot, with plenty of swim-throughs and lots of structure to examine. Signage clearly indicates crevasses that are not safe to attempt to penetrate.

What is there to see in the Den, you ask? The landscape is the attraction, with fossil beds dating back 33 million years, for those who know what they’re looking at, but there also are several kinds of fish in limited numbers, and even a turtle named Nelson. The Den’s web site says the cave has yielded fossils dating back to the Pleistocene Age; today you can see them at the excellent Florida Museum of Natural History in nearby Gainesville. (Early settlers saw steam rising from the spring’s “blowhole” on winter mornings — hence the cavern’s name.)

Although snorkelers are welcome — and make up a big percentage of the traffic here — Devil’s Den is set up for divers, with an onsite shop that rents tanks and other equipment, plenty of covered pavilions where divers can suit up and leave gear while below, changing areas with showers, a heated pool, and a small gift shop with sodas and ice cream. The grounds surrounding the spring have lots of room for picnics, including grills, and both tent and RV camping is permitted; there also are four cabins for rent.

Admission is $38 per diver; contact Devil’s Den at 352-528-3344 or at devilsden.com.

Want to make a day of it?

Devil's Den is small and can be thoroughly experienced in a half-day (our dives there usually run about 40 minutes, sometimes longer for first-timers), unless you are camping and just enjoying soaking up the natural Florida setting. Consider checking out Cedar Lakes Woods & Gardens, a 20-acre botanical garden created from a 100-year-old limestone quarry, just outside the entrance to Devil’s Den. Admission is $12; plan on about an hour and 45 minutes to view the entire garden. An adjacent 54-acre nature conservation easement is maintained by the Conservation Trust for Florida.